In Poland,you usually see the Vietnamese people hawking goods at the local markets.In my area of the country,they don't have a visible prescence on the streets.It may be different in Warsaw or Krakow for example.

I think they aren't very well integrated into Polish society.In my 6 years here,I've never met a Pole who's had a Vietnamese friend or colleague or really knew anything about them.Poles like to stick to their own as you may have noticed.

I remember seeing 4 very tall,black, female, american volleyball players strolling down the main street of Kielce a few years back.They were obviously in town for some tournament or match as they were wearing their team jackets.People's heads almost fell off from the staring and pointing.Some of the younger dudes were nudging their friends and laughing.

Kielce is known for being a fast growing, but hickish city with lots of farmers living the big city life.

The difference is that most countries don't have as many groups of white power homies looking for trouble. But as long as you know where and when not to go, it isn't a big deal.

I agree that the Vietnamese community is poorly integrated in Poland and it's going to stay that way for a long time. As long as people knew I wasn't an immigrant I didn't really face any problems. I remember waiting for the Auchan bus outside Wroclaw and there was this probably half Vietnamese dude all slouched over with a baseball cap on, trying not to get noticed. He was getting some trouble from a couple teenagers when their attention turned to me. I just said, "What's up? " and that shut them up.

I agree that the Vietnamese community is poorly integrated in Poland and it's going to stay that way for a long time.

yes it will, but so will any other minority in Poland. one, because of economic reasons, and two, sorry to bring up my old argument but......foreigners simply don't learn Polish which continues to affect foreign people becoming integrated into Polish society. as for those of us on this forum, at the very least we're fluent in English so at times we can bail ourselves out when we can't do it in Polish, but imagine not having English or Polish, in Poland...........you'd be dead in the water.

I know for certain that Poznan can be a rough place and has an edge to it.I don't think I've ever seen as many facial tatoos and hidden swastikas as I did during my year in Poznan.

My born and bred Poznanite friends tell me that because Poznan is a bit of a big city oasis in the vast,exclusively rural wielkapolska,it gets all the "tough" farm boys looking for a good time or trouble during the weekends.

The Poznanites even have a name for these guys, but for the life of me,I can't remember what it is.

But those Vietnamese teenagers have gone to school in Poland all their lives - they speak Polish like natives!!
Haven't they??

At least, this is true of the Vietnamese population in the Czech Republic....
where teachers tend to like them very much because they are respectful and hardworking. It's becoming common to see Vietnamese/Czech girls shopping with their Czech friends, all speaking native Czech together....

In 6 years,I've never heard any ethnically Polish teenagers, speaking with non-ethnic Polish ones in Polish on the streets.

I've heard a few conversing in English,French,German and Russian but never in Polish.

I hear it often, but then I do live in Warsaw's Vietnamese neighbourhood. Last time was 11 oc'lock on Friday morning last week when I was on the tram on the way to work (judging by the friend she was with, that Vietnamese girl was about 19 and seriously cute, which is why I remember it so clearly).

In 6 years,I've never heard any ethnically Polish teenagers, speaking with non-ethnic Polish ones in Polish on the streets.

I've heard a few conversing in English,French,German and Russian but never in Polish.

I hear it often, but then I do live in Warsaw's Vietnamese neighbourhood. Last time was 11 oc'lock on Friday morning last week when I was on the tram on the way to work (judging by the friend she was with, that Vietnamese girl was about 19 and seriously cute, which is why I remember it so clearly).

My next door neighbor is middle eastern, at the playground by my apt. there is a number of foreign children, they all seem to speak Polish. This is Warsaw however. Not that it's this super cosmo type place, but it does have it's share of "out of towners".

Kielce by the way is also known for having some of the best electronic artists... (useless fact)

Yeah,it's common knowledge that there are two Polands:Warsaw and the rest of the country.

Only looking at things in Warsaw, does not give a person a good insight into the country, but I guess as Poland's biggest city and capital,it also can't be ignored completely.

Whenever I go to Warsaw(only when I am forced to go for some reason),I feel like I'm entering some strange land and am always happy to get back "south".I don't get the same feeling at all in Krakow,Poznan or Gdansk for example.They all feel like relatively typical Polish cities to me.

There's tonnes of racism in Poland. I have a black doctor friend who speaks Polish fluently and she's always telling me about the vile things people say on trams.

In the bars of Poznan I've experienced loads of f-you type anti-British comments.

They don't like Russians and slag off the Germans.

Xenophobic or what!

Poles have huge chips on their shoulders and latent nationalism in every bone.

well, you can't understand what you've never experienced. think of how many poles living out in the villages....millions of them.....that have never even seen a single black person in their lives, let alone spoken to one.

I've never met an eskimo but I wouldn't slag one off if I saw him on a tram.

You may have never met an eskimo, but you've met, and held countless conversations with people from all over the world and continue to as life goes on. this gives you a totally different view on people of the world, ones you've met and ones you have yet to meet.